Adrift
29 July - 13 August 2023
Articulate Project Space - Group Show
Adrift
2023
Site-specific installation.
Sand, wood and other materials (Backroom)
Articulate project space: Back Room
DRAW, a group show curated by Beata Geyer.
Drawing, for me, is an investigation and/or expression in search of the sublime. The inspiration for this installation came from a recent residency at Bundanon, where I observed the river’s capacity for a violent beauty, carrying colossal timber clusters through the deep valley. I envisioned the rain breaking down the soil, unearthing magnificent trees from their perched sanctuaries. Dramatic gusts of wind racing through the valley conspired to transpose decades of growth, sliding, breaking, and coalescing while branches breached its boundaries and carried further into the vast ocean’s embrace. Washed up on a beach, augmented by time, it waited to be discovered. Each found object had forged its path, drawing a distinctive and unique narrative.
In this work, I have recontextualised and preserved pieces of driftwood held within the black grains of black sand sourced from the Shoalhaven River and beaches of the south coast of NSW. This collection has been a fifteen-year odyssey, slowly amassed through walks along beaches and, most recently, the river’s edge of Bundanon. Finding its true context as I reflect on my own personal narrative—born in the southern tip of Africa and now residing on the eastern coast of Australia. Like a piece of driftwood lost at sea, I have grappled with questions of purpose and mourned the loss of connection.
Adrift is a lament for an idealised narrative, a contemplation, questioning a sense of place and profound acknowledgment of nature’s inspiring power, embracing its violence and inevitable beauty.
